“Just How Righteous Are You?” Rabbi Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

Before we can begin the portion for this week, we have to go to the end of last week.

The world is a mess: human wickedness is everywhere. Evil permeates every plan devised by the human mind. It could sound like the beginning of a Batman movie or maybe what fills every newsfeed in our own time.

But here, it is the close of the chapters of creation and those that follow. Humanity has lost its way and God regretted, had a sorrowful heart — maybe even a broken one — that humans came into existence along with the animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky.

But not the fish.

Amidst this troubled scene, Noah burst onto the scene, possessing some kind of grace that captured God’s attention.

You may remember Noah, loved by kids for the animals that came twosie by twosie to his ark? Though we don’t reveal to the kids the devastating environment that surrounded Noah. But we do wonder what kind of person he was that captivated the consideration of God.

The Torah tells us clearly without hesitation.

Noah was a righteous, צַדִּ֛יק
ethically correct תָּמִ֥ים person אִ֥ישׁ
in his generation or at the time he lived בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו

What was that generation like in which Noah lived and demonstrated his righteous and ethically correct behavior and character? The Torah uses specific words to describe the situation of lawlessness and violence as well as being thoroughly corrupt.

One is shachat which means spoil, injure, violate, mar, destroy all, of which is encompassed in the corruption that prevailed in that world.

The earth became corrupt before God;
וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים

But the other word used for lawlessness and violence in Hebrew captures our attention at this moment in time in our generation, in the time in which we live:
That word is hamas-lawlessness and violence.
the earth was filled with lawlessness:
וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס

The hamas that we know, that broke our hearts and God’s as well on October 7 is an acronym in Arabic for Islamic Resistance movement. A search for the meaning of the word reveals its use in Arabic as a definition of strength or zeal.

The hamas of Gaza and the hamas of Noah’s time have been connected in my mind. The threat of a flood of lawlessness and violence threatens to destroy so much for so many blameless souls. I pray that the IDF will prevail for Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself even as we are left with the possibility that we are drowning in sorrow with all this loss.

But our portion offers us, through the description of Noah, a way to see what kind of person receives God’s attention and can stand out in such a tumultuous moment when God’s heart is breaking.

Noah was a righteous, צַדִּ֛יק
ethically correct תָּמִ֥ים person אִ֥ישׁ
in his generation or at the time he lived בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו

The commentator Rashi recognized what others had pondered. Why add “in his generation?” Couldn’t Noah just be righteous for all time. Why place him in a moment in time? Rashi surmised that the way one understands will either have a positive or negative perspective:

Some of our Rabbis explain it to Noah’s credit: he was righteous even in his generation; it follows that had he lived in a generation of righteous people he would have been even more righteous owing to the force of [having to serve as] a good example [surrounded by the dominating force of unscrupulous people]. Others, however, explain it to Noah’s discredit: in comparison with his own generation he was accounted righteous, but had he lived in the generation of Abraham  who was surely righteous), Noah’s level of righteousness would have been accounted as of no importance, [He would never have been at the same high level.] (cf. Sanhedrin 108a).

There are those who criticize Noah for not challenging God, but with the commentators, there are also those who criticize those who criticize Noah and remind us that we should not disparage another who is regarded as righteous in a devastatingly awful world.

This leads us to consider the difference between righteous indignation and self righteous indignation.

Perhaps it was actually Noah’s righteous indignation that caught the eye of God in the first place. Could Noah have been like the person described by Elie Wiesel in his book, One Generation After about a just man who shouts because he doesn’t want to be swept up in the viciousness that surrounded him, even after no one is listening anymore?

Could the God of Genesis have heard Noah’s shouts and redirected him to the ark building project?

Why else would Noah be described with such glowing attributes punctuated with the fact that in addition to being righteous and ethically correct, he also walked with God אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ׃?

His compassion, empathy and integrity for the ethical behavior guided him in the way he moved about the world.

And maybe he differentiated himself by getting to work on the ark to drown out the complaints of the self-righteous indignant people who constantly surrounded him with their pride filled self-absorption in their own outrage driven by their own moral superiority, which may have led to the lawlessness in the first place.

Perhaps Noah witnessed the clash before his own eyes.

It feels like we all have the potential to be Noah, righteous in our desire for a peaceful world and indignant that the loss of life and the amount of suffering increases. Rather than turn our attention to exhibit self-righteous indignation believing that more violence and lawlessness through terrorism and skirmishes by armed rebels openly supplied by Iran will result in anything but more death through rousing folks with lies and calumnies, could we instead arm ourselves with righteous indignation?

How will we see the world as we move into tomorrow and the next day? Anger and bitterness remain. So does fear. But also determination and perseverance that we must find strength in one another and for each other. I believe that we have to continue to exert righteousness in the face of mayhem. Jewish hate and Muslim hate are simple responses to calumnies and lies. Righteous indignation forces us to complexify and pay attention to the nuances of the situation. Our righteous indignation manifest in caring, kindness, and empathy, working for a fair, just, safe and peaceful world does drown out the self righteous inclination for bitterness and anger that could influence our decisions.

Our own President recognized the power of that distinction when he addressed the nation.

We are in the midst of a crisis and a story that is yet to find its completion. As I conclude, I offer this poem:

Blessing for A Broken Vessel
Circle of Grace, by Jan Richardson

Do not despair.
You hold the memory of what it was to be whole.

It lives deep in your bones.
It abides in your heart that has been torn
and mended a hundred times.
It persists in your lungs
that know the mystery
of what it means
to be full, to be empty, to be full again.

I’m not asking you to give up your grip
on the shards you clasp so close to you,
but to wonder what it would be like
for those jagged edges
to meet each other
in some new pattern
that you have never imagined,
that you have never dared to dream.

Together through righteousness, integrity, and hope, may we fashion a vessel to transport us all to places of holy cooperation and peace.

May the strength of Israel endure and may there come a time when peace becomes stronger than violence and all those who live in the region know calm from a united heart of community and cooperation.

Shabbat Shalom!

We need each other more than ever. Let’s join together at Qabbalat Shabbat. This week we will learn about The Way of Humanity from our Senior Scholar, Rabbi Bernard Mehlman. The humanity that emerges from the strength of the soul helps us all.  After the service, we celebrate Rabbi Mehlman’s 60 years in the rabbinate with a special oneg and program.

Rabbi Elaine Zecher